In a season that has been as wide open as any we have previously witnessed Monster Jam’s biggest stars seem to be gaining the momentum as we head into the final weeks leading up to the Monster Jam NGK Spark Plugs World Finals next month in Las Vegas.

The huge floor at the Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis annually provides a great prelude to the Vegas championship battles, with Monster Jam officials able to create lightening fast racecourses and World Finals caliber freestyle obstacles. In that setting Jimmy Creten, Dennis Anderson, and to a lesser extent Tom Meents, began to flex some late season muscle in front of yet another sold out house last Saturday night.

Let’s start with Creten, the driver who arguably has been closer to winning a world racing title without yet taking one home than any other superstar in the sport’s history. Jimmy had Bounty Hunter flying and took home the Speed televised racing triumph on a night when he had to take out the best in the business, including Grave Digger, Maximum Destruction, and Blue Thunder to claim the big trophy. For years Creten has been among the favorites entering the racing portion of the finals and he is showing that he will again be deserving of that respect when he head back to Sam Boyd Stadium for the ninth edition of Monster Jam’s championship battle.

As for Anderson, Dennis returned to an event with both Creten and Meents in the field for the first time in more than a month and the 26-year veteran rose to the occasion, proving that he is as great in all aspects of the industry today as he has ever been. Anderson drove his Grave Digger into the Championship Race in St. Louis where he lost a close finale to Bounty Hunter, then wowed the Missouri crowd with yet another insane freestyle performance to take home the trophy from that discipline in St. Louis. Anderson’s truck has been exceptionally fast all season, and remember, this is an even numbered year. Dennis Anderson, who has made the Monster Jam NGK Spark Plugs World Finals Championship Race in each of the last four years, won the world racing title in both 2004 and 2006 to establish that winning trend in even numbered years. What is just as interesting is that Dennis has not won the World Freestyle Championship since World Finals 1, and that could change this year, because he has never looked better freestyling than he has from the opening bell this season, and he has won more often than not in freestyle action since we started the new campaign last December in Minneapolis.

Meents did not get either win last weekend in St. Louis, but he was certainly a player, and if he and his team can get the mechanical gremlins out of the way over this next month he will roll into Las Vegas with a great chance at adding to his record seven World Championships. Meents was the fastest qualifier in St. Louis and his semifinals race against Creten looked to be headed to a photo finish when Maximum Destruction lost power. Then in freestyle Meents was flying all over the massive dome, huge air everywhere, but the truck broke a wheel off early and then Tom flipped Max-D with time left on the clock to deny him any chance at challenging Anderson for the win. Meents looks as strong as ever, and as long as the equipment can hold up, he will be hard to beat in the coming weeks and on into Las Vegas.

I expect that Anderson, Creten, and Meents will have to be listed among the favorites when we start looking ahead at the most likely potential 2008 World Champions, yet at the same time, it is exciting to see the emergence of more and more new stars ready to challenge the big guns. Take Bobby Parr as an example. The Team Suzuki driver may well be the most improved shoe in the game, and in St. Louis he did something that these days is almost impossible, taking the lead with the opening freestyle run and staying in the hot seat almost the rest of the night until Anderson and Grave Digger turned in the winning performance. At the end of the night Parr finished second only to Anderson in freestyle on the obstacle laden floor that is closer than any other to the layout the drivers will face when they challenge each other for this year’s world freestyle title. Parr’s teammate, Lupe Sosa, also looks to be closing this season at the top of his game. One of the most telling moments of the St. Louis event came in the second round racing match-up between reigning World Racing Champion John Seasock in Batman, and Sosa’s El Toro Loco. Batman defeated El Toro in the opening round but Sosa still made it to round two as a fast loser from the opening round and ended up drawing Seasock in a re-match. After consulting with his Crew Chief, R. L. Arace, considered one of the best in the business, the El Toro Loco team made a couple of key adjustments in strategy, and Sosa turned a close first round loss against Batman into a narrow second round win, and then Sosa went on to push Grave Digger to the limit in a very tight semifinal defeat.

Some big events are still left in advance of Las Vegas, highlighted by this coming weekend’s big show in Jacksonville, FL. Like last weekend’s tilt in St. Louis, it will be another chance for the Monster Jam stars to build momentum heading into the greatest night in Monster Jam on March 29th. It will be another chance for the cream of the crop to get dialed in toward a championship run, but it will also be another opportunity for the sport’s rising stars to take that next step toward what they hope culminates in a championship season.